Twenty five countries are now involved in a vast search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

They are also asking countries to provide assistance in the search for the plane, including satellite data and analysis, ground-search capabilities, and maritime and air assets.

After checking their radar recordings, Pakistani civil aviation officials said they had found no sign of the missing jet.

Malaysian national police chief Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said background checks had been requested on all passengers aboard the plane, but that so far nothing suspicious had been reported – though some intelligence agencies still had to respond.

The police are also reportedly looking at the family life and psychological state of the plane’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, and searched their homes on Saturday.

Zaharie Shah and Fariq Abdul had not asked to fly together, Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed at the news conference.

Officers spoke to relatives of Zaharie Shah and experts are examining the pilot’s personal flight simulator. Police have visited his house for a second day.

Those who know Zaharie Shah, 53, insist he is a normal family man.

With 18,000 hours of flying experience, Zaharie Shah is a self-confessed “aviation geek” and proudly posted pictures online of the flight simulator he built at home.

Fariq Hamid was said to be engaged, and had just graduated to the cockpit of the Boeing 777. A local community leader described him as a “good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet”. The only known blot on his record is that he invited two female passengers into the cockpit of a 2011 flight from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, in breach of regulations.

As well as the crew and passengers, police are investigating the engineers and other ground staff who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off.

A team from British telecommunications company Inmarsat team arrived on Saturday in Malaysia.

An Inmarsat satellite is said have continued receiving signals from flight MH370 at least five hours after the plane was reported lost.

A team of French investigators is to travel to Malaysia on Monday to help with the search, the French transport ministry has said in a statement. They will join members of the US National Transportation Safety Board already in Malaysia.

Roy likes politics. Knowledge is power, Roy constantly says, so he spends nearly all day gathering information and writing articles about the latest events around the globe. He likes history and studying about war techniques, this is why he finds writing his articles a piece of cake. Another hobby of his is horse – riding.

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